Budget Media center

RuggieBear

Can someone spec me a small, quiet, cheap media center. Just to stick beside my tv. I have ntl digital.

Would have at most 400-500 euro.

I have my own ideas but would love outside opinions.:)

i have a few spare parts including 512 ram, a full size s754 main board and amd 64 2800 but not sure i want a full size case in my living room

8T8

Gigabyte mATX board with integrated sound, VGA and PCIe port for €62 or get one of the other mATX S754 boards it doesnt really matter which.

Samsung Spinpoint 200GB €73 - quiet enough HD.


Silverstone LC11 HTPC case black €141 also available in silver. (Silverstone case website)

Akasa 80mm quiet fan €8 for case above I doubt it's own stock fans are as quiet - get two & replace stock units with those.

So rough total about €320 including delivery from both with room to spare if you want other items like a tuner, DVD drive etc.

The case above uses riser cards so you will get at least one such card with it which will allow you to use a single PCI device (pictures on Silverstone site are misleading in this area but reviews say otherwise), the PCIe riser is sold separately unless they have updated the bundle, the PSU should be able to handle an A64 2800 and the rest (dont overload it with a graphics card).

Stock CPU cooler is the only issue due to the height restrictions (cant use tall ones) so use Cool & Quiet to lower the noise output though a better aftermarket cooler may be worth investing in as the AMD stock coolers weren't all that quiet to begin with. Something like the Akasa EVO33 with it's fan could be aimed directly at the exhaust fan to enhance cooling if it fits you need to check the measurements first but the DBA should be around 20-24 in total which should be tolerable noise wise. Saw review that has a Zalman cooler in it so those would be a good choice as well.

RuggieBear

cheers.